"When you hear the words "chicken war," you may laugh, thinking of a couple of chickens fighting for a rooster's attention. But the chicken war was actually a serious trade conflict between the United States and the European Economic Community (EEC) in the early 1960s. The murmurs of conflict began when the U.S. dramatically increased its chicken exports to Western Europe in the late 1950s. American poultry farmers, benefitting from industrial-scale farming and low production costs, found eager markets in countries like West Germany"
"But European farmers couldn't compete with the cheaper American chicken flooding their markets, and domestic producers began lobbying for their government's protection. In 1962, the EEC (led by France and Germany) responded by imposing significant tariffs on imported poultry from the United States. The stated reason was to protect European farmers from unfair competition. Even today, the European Union protects its food heritage."
In the late 1950s U.S. poultry producers expanded exports to Western Europe, leveraging industrial-scale farming and low production costs. European farmers could not compete with cheaper American chicken, prompting domestic lobbying for protection. In 1962 the EEC, led by France and Germany, imposed significant tariffs on U.S. poultry to shield local producers. The tariffs disrupted U.S. exports—over $26 million of chicken to West Germany alone—and were viewed in Washington as protectionist. The United States initially protested, then in 1964 the Johnson administration implemented narrowly targeted tariffs on select European exports as calibrated retaliation to avoid a full-scale trade war.
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